Das Aschenputtel

I’ll admit: I approached this skeptical. Another *Cinderella*? But Gerung’s *Aschenputtel* is a revelation—less a fairy tale and more a folk horror fable. His narration is the star: a deep, measured baritone that never slips into cartoonish villainy or saccharine sweetness. When the stepmother snaps orders, his voice tightens just enough to make your skin prickle; when Aschenputtel weeps at her mother’s grave, the quiet ache in his delivery is devastating. The pacing is relentless—no meandering descriptions, just action and consequence, packed into half an hour. It’s the audiobook equivalent of a knife’s edge. That said, the production’s minimalism won’t suit everyone. There’s no music, no ambient noise, just Gerung’s voice against silence. For some, that’ll feel stark; for others (me included), it’s a feature, not a bug—like hearing the story as it might’ve been told in a 19th-century parlor. My only critique? The recording’s audio levels are *just* uneven enough that I occasionally had to adjust volume during quieter passages. And while Gerung’s diction is impeccable, absolute beginners in German might struggle with the rapid-fire dialogue. But those are quibbles. This is how fairy tales should be told: unsoftened, unapologetic, and utterly gripping.